


Listen to Her Quiet Heart Singing Loud

by krabapple



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-10
Updated: 2011-12-10
Packaged: 2017-10-27 03:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krabapple/pseuds/krabapple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not like Julie Taylor thought she'd marry Matt Saracen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Listen to Her Quiet Heart Singing Loud

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers through Season One only.

When she was fifteen, it's not like Julie Taylor thought she'd marry Matt Saracen.

But that's exactly what ended up happening.

They live outside of Austin. Her dad had taken the job at TMU, but two years after he thought he would. He didn't take Jason Street to college football with him; he took Matt instead. No one thought that was a lesser choice, the result of a tragic event. Julie and her mother had gone to Austin, too, and both to college: Julie to a degree in journalism and Tami Taylor to a Ph.D. in psychology.

Matt doesn't even play football anymore. Granted, it's ten years after his college career ended. He could have gone pro, probably as a second string quarterback on a third rate team, at least at first, but TMU had a winning season his senior year, and that was good enough for him. He hadn't wanted the life of a pro player -- the time on the road, the pressure, the insistence on a high-living, fast-paced lifestyle.

Julie works as a reporter at the local paper. It's not exactly the most exciting job in the world, but she gets to write every day, and the hours are flexible. She can work both at the office and at home. Matt teaches English at the high school a town over. They are both regularly home by the late afternoon; they spend their nights putting kids to bed, grading papers and editing copy, sometimes catching the ten o'clock drama on t.v. before bed, huddled underneath a blanket on the couch. It's two kids, SUVs and part-time assistant football coaching for a small stipend, but most days Julie can't imagine anything else.

Sometimes, just sometimes, she wonders if she's missed something. She and Matt have been together for what feels like forever. They married a year after college graduation, almost to the day. They have two children, a seven-year-old son and four-year-old daughter. They have a modest home, the 2.5 kids, one of each, all the cliches. Her parents live nearby, and they visit with her sister often. She sees her mom at least twice a week, if not more. Her dad has almost fully gray hair and a small pot-belly of middle age; he still coaches TMU football. He spoils their kids with candy and quarters like it's his job.

Matt's been the only boyfriend, partner, and lover Julie has ever known. It's not often, but sometimes she thinks what it might be like if there had been someone else. She's never talked with someone else about what it was like for her in Dillon. She's never eaten at a fancy restaurant with anyone but Matt on their anniversary. She's never been to Europe. She's been on the west coast once, to visit Tyra in L.A., and it was only her fifth time outside of Texas. She's never felt anyone else's hands on her body.

But Matt still makes her laugh. He still asks her about her day, not because it's what he should do, but because he really wants to know. He talks to Landry every day, even though Landry works in Dallas in software development. Matt stutters a bit when he gets nervous around her, which happens even now, especially if she's dressed up for a school event. He goes to independent movies with her and makes dinner three nights a week. His hands are still always calloused from a football, because he's been coaching, or playing with her dad, or throwing the ball around with their kids. The roughness catches on her thighs, or the curve of her shoulder, and it makes her heart beat faster, makes her shiver.

Days like this, though, when her family is over, Julie just has to smile. Her dad is chasing her screeching daughter through the house and then throwing her over his shoulder on the way back out to the backyard; Matt's alternating grilling burgers and throwing a football with their son while Julie's in the kitchen chopping vegetables for the salad. Tami is making potato salad and talking about TMU's last home game while her sister's running up Julie and Matt's phone bill talking to her best friend. Through the open screen door, Julie hears Matt call her dad "Coach" and then "sir."

Julie still wears the amethyst necklace Matt gave her all those years ago. She fingers it on the chain just a bit before dropping the cucumbers in the salad.

She knows she hasn't missed a thing.


End file.
